navigating the seasons of life

I recently shared with a dear friend of mine my feelings of weariness. She began to pray and interceed for me and she sent me these beautiful words. They encouraged me so much that I had to share them with you…

…She is weary, weary of body, weary of spirit and weary of heart. She is weary not from corporate battles or legal wrangles, she is not weary from pursuing her right in life, or adding to her career. Her weariness does not come from over exertion in pursuit of a firm body or from pursuing her own lifestyle goals.

Her wariness comes from the front line battle; she is a weary warrior, a warrior on the front line. My friend stands with a directive from the King, her armour on, her sword at the ready, her stance defensive and…. she does the washing, cooks dinner and loves the little people God has brought into her life.

To all appearances my friend looks like the mother of young children, but in reality, God’s Supernatural Reality, she is a destiny bender, a generation changer and one of the scariest warriors the enemy has every faced.

She is a mum.

And with every act of kindness when she is overwhelmed, and far beyond herself, she brakes enemy strong holds. With every deep breath, followed by a word of wisdom supplied by Grace she is shaping and moulding the next dynamic generation of Gods Kingdom people. With every sacrifice of self, she robs the enemy of what he wants most – hurt, alone and damaged children.

She is laying down of her own life, for her children. She gives up so much, so much of herself, her needs, her wants, her time, her energy and she does this to impact tomorrow, and SHE IS impacting tomorrow beyond even what she is aware of. Her daily tasks are having eternal consequences with heavenly rewards.

Hang in there my warrior friend, your story has not stalled, it is not lost amongst the piles of dishes and baskets of dirty laundry. In fact you are at the climax of your story, the part where everything matters most! You are in the battle, battle weary but not overcome, tired but not defeated, low but victorious….{written by Sian Birch}

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I am feeling very weary at the moment. As a mother of four young children I guess that is to be expected! But I think that my weariness is much more than just feeling tired. I need to find rest and by rest I do not just mean that I need more sleep but I need to come to a place of rest in my spirit.

My season shifted at the beginning of the year. I felt like my previous season was interrupted. I was going one way and then all of a sudden I find myself in a completely different place. My interruption was a good interruption but what I am finding difficult is that I am in a totally different place to where I thought I was going to be.

I am trying to live like I am still in my previous season and it is making me grow weary. I found that I was striving to keep up. I was comparing and measuring myself to a benchmark that I am just not going to achieve right now. My season has changed and so now my perspective of myself and where I am needs to change too.

In order to find the peace and rest in my spirit that I am looking for I need to understand the season that I am in right now. I have to understand that I cannot measure myself against the work that I produced in my previous season. I have to stop striving and stop comparing.

I have to accept the time and the place that I am in. God has given me the grace to walk this season and I need to choose to not worry about the things that I may have walked away from or worry about the things to come. God is faithful and all that He has for me will come all in His perfect timing.

There is beauty in each and every season so I am trying to embrace the place that I am in right now until the shift to the new season comes.

If my story speaks to you, if you too are struggling with feeling weary then I pray that you will find strength and rest in the Lord. That you will gain clarity in your spirit for the season that you are in and if you are carrying any burdens that do not belong to you that they will fall from your shoulders. I speak life, courage and hope in to you. In Jesus name, Amen.

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Have you heard of the saying that you can’t see the forest for the trees?

When you are too close to a situation you need to step back and get a little perspective and see the bigger picture. When you step back you will notice there was a whole forest you couldn’t see before because you were too close, and too focused on the one tree in front of you.

I can be guilty of this. I get so focused in on the one problem that I fail to see the bigger picture around me. I am in the throws of motherhood at the moment, raising four small children. Children go through different stages or phases, some lovely and some completely difficult that it makes you want to tear your hair out.

I get so caught up in the fact that my child is driving me nuts with (and insert here any particular behavior that may drive you crazy) that I forget about all of the wonderful, lovely and sweet aspects of that child’s nature.

I have to step back and take a look around me and find something that is good and wonderful about them and choose to celebrate that. I have to choose to focus on that for a little while and remind myself of who they really are. They are not just this one horrible phase that they are going through right now but they are actually also this good and wonderful person and I am going to highlight that and celebrate that about them.

By stepping back and looking at the bigger picture of who that child really is I change my attitude about them and it changes the way I then approach the other not so nice thing that they are doing.

You can take this example and apply it to any difficult situation that you may be facing. Take a step back from that thing that is in front of you and take a look around. Find something that is going good in your life and take the time to stop and celebrate that. When you step back you will get a different perspective and you will see the beautiful forest and not just the one tree in front of you.

Like this:

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
2 Corinthians 1:20-22

I know that the Lord’s promises are yes and amen but sometimes when those promises seem to be taking a little longer to come than I had anticipated I start to feel unsure, I start to waver. It is in these times that I need to remember to stand firm, to stand firm even when the promises seem to be taking a while.

I cannot do it out of my own strength, God is the one who makes me stand firm.

He created me to be strong and courageous and to not shrink back, to stand firm and believe that His promises are yes and amen. It doesn’t say that His promises are now, whenever you like or in my own timing but they are still a yes.

When I feel that I am beginning to waver I remember that God has anointed me, He has set his seal of ownership upon me and put His Spirit in my heart (verse 21 & 22). It does not matter what is happening or what I am waiting for I am still Gods precious daughter, I am chosen, I am loved and I will be taken care of.

This song has been chasing me all week as I process the current situation I find myself in. I am in a situation where I am waiting for God to provide for my family and me in a big way. The odds seem against us and we need a creative miracle. As I am waiting on the Lord to speak, to show me the way, to provide, these lyrics have been constantly running through my mind…

Such a journey walking with you now, when I don’t know what steps to take, when I don’t know the moves to make, this one thing I can’t escape, Your love.
When I don’t have the words to say, when I can’t seem to find my way, this one thing I can’t escape, It’s Your love.

God’s love is what makes me firm. He loves me like a perfect Father and He will sustain me. To know the love of the Father is all that I need to stand firm. He loves me so much that He sent me His Spirit. The Holy Spirit comforts me, guides me, and strengthens me. God is with me always… from the mountain to the valley, from the desert to the raging sea, and in the silence or the city streets, Your presence always covers me.

I don’t have the answers for everything; why there is a delay to the thing that I am waiting on I do not know, but the one thing I do know is that God loves me. He is a good God and in Him everything will be ok. Whether I am here or there I am still anointed as His, I am still loved and in His love I can stand firm.

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Sometimes we find ourselves standing still in life. We have our dreams and goals laid out ahead of us but we are in a season of feeling like we are motionless, not moving fast enough towards the dream, goal or promise. God has planted these dreams in us and we have said yes to partnering with Him in them and we start to make some progress and then it just seems like all of a sudden we are put on pause. We enter into a waiting season and to me that feels like the most difficult part of my journey towards my dreams. Not the starting point where I decide to step out in faith and do something but the waiting period.

But I am reminded time and time again along my walk with the Lord that we are never on pause with what God wants to do with us, because it is not always the thing that we are doing that God is interested in but He is interested in us, in our hearts and our character.

In 2 Peter chapter 1 verses 3 to 11 it says…

3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. 10 Therefore, my brothers and sisters,make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble,11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

God gives us promises and plants dreams and desires in our hearts so that we can partner and participate with Him. When we are put on pause it is not that the Lord is withholding from us. He has not left us, we have not heard wrong, we just have some growing and developing to do within ourselves before we move on.

We had the faith to step out and partner with the Lord which He so loves and now in our time of pausing we need to make sure that we are adding to our faith and strengthening our character. There is nothing like a period of standing still in your life to test you. Are you willing to press on towards the thing He has for you or will you give up in frustration and defeat.

It is just like it says in the scripture above…

…make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ…

If we want to be effective we need to be adding to our faith even in our season of being on pause.

Use the time to lean in to the Lord and listen to what it is He wants to work on within you. To be effective and productive you need to have strengthened your heart, your mind and your character. When I feel that the Lord is wanting to work on something within me I just ask Him to reveal what it is. I go to my closest and trusted friends and ask them to pray and to hear from the Lord for me as well. I try to get to the root of the problem, and weed it out so it no longer holds me back. I try to identify the lie I was believing and then replace it with the truth.

So if you seem to be standing still in a season, remember that you are not on pause. You are still moving forward but moving forward in matters of the heart not matters of the hands. Use your season of pause to draw close to the Lord and to hear His voice and to become more like the wonderful person He created you to be.